The New Tales of Old City Shanghai
Bradbury School , Liu , Emily - 10
T he Old city of Shanghai lies along the river mouth of the Huangpu river . Old city is also called the " Chinese city ", It have been known as the urban core . Tourists are attracted and amazed by the huge changea that Shanghai has made .
More than 1,000 year ago , it was originally a small fishing village . In the late Qing Dynasty , after foreign concessions were fixed , it rapidly developed into the most important and busiest merchant global trading port .
The city had its own wall to assure that people in the city were protected from raids of the Japanese Pirates . In addition , the city was surrounded by army posts at every gate of the wall . The wall measured approximately 10 meters high and 5 kilometres in circumference .
The city hallway is almost covered with villagers announcing advertisements very loudly . Posters are scattered around the roofs of stalls and the free walls people don ’ t use anymore . Before in Old city of Shanghai , people used two- wheeled carts called Rickshaw that was drawn by men . The road has been bruised and damaged . Cracks have been left from the Opium War . Houses were contained and not big but only few were to use as temples , malls or hotels .
Fashion in Old city of Shanghai was very different and unique from that of today . The fashion in old city commonly had a pattern of flowers and petals to represent love and happiness . A streak of a half opened part was on both sides of the dress . We call it a traditional Chinese woman ’ s dress .
The people also had the rich and the poor . The rich had money to dress up more admirably , appealing and elegant . The poor had to wear the same clothes over and over again and washed them in the river , then hanged the clothes on their window-sills to dry .
Shanghai people loved eating dumplings . Because of it , it became popular . Furthermore , if people wanted to take away dumplings , the queue would be very long and you would need to wait approximately 90 minutes in total to get the food .
On the streets we would not often see pets getting walked by their owners because dogs had been traditionally kept for herding food and guard duty and were frequently kept at home . But now dogs are free and get walked by their owners . Most often you ' d see a breed called the Chow Chow . The Chow Chow is a kind of dog that had an intelligent mind . It had a mass of lengthy hair , a button- liked nose .
When it came to night , the houses and streets would be illuminated with lights . Although Old city of Shanghai was poor and old fashioned they figured out a way to make it look new .
Today Old city of Shanghai has made considerable changes . It has become the largest city in China , with a population more than 24 million , the largest commercial and financial city in China . Lastly , also the largest sea port handling containers in the world !
The city has upgraded into a city of skyscrapers and very tall buildings . New houses and buildings are built almost as fast as the old ones are cleared . There are many famous buildings in Shanghai to attract tourists , such as the Jin Mao tower , Oriental Pearl Radio and the TV Broadcasting centre . But the river next to The Bund has never changed .
The Oriental Pearl tower has 14 floors and the most popular floor , will be from two hundred and sixty three meters off the ground . It has a transparent floor and you can see all the building below .
The place also attracts fashion seeking shoppers from all around the world to the Nanjing Road shopping walking street . The Nanjing road shopping walking street is the most famous street in Shanghai . As a result , thousands of people go there and buy things and don ' t forget the countless restaurants and famous brands . The shopping street is at least 3 to 4 miles long . It starts from the east of the Bund all the way to the west of the junction of Jing ' an Temple .
Shanghai had a garden called the Yu Yuan Garden . The Yu Yuan Garden was located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the old city of Shanghai . The Yu garden is called the garden of happiness . It ' s not just covered with nature it is also covered with ponds , houses and bridges . You can also feed the fishes in the ponds .
The transportation has again further upgraded into cars , airplanes , taxi and bullet trains . But other than vehicles there are elevators and lifts . Instantly the transportation is agile , much comfortable for you to sit on and more safe now that someone had invented seat belts .